New to speedway?
Getting started
Whether you want to watch from the bank or get behind the wheel, this is what you actually need to know. Nothing here assumes you have been before.
Going to watch
What a night looks like
Several classes race heats and then finals, so you get short bursts of racing with breaks between. Expect three to four hours. There is food at the track. It is loud, it is dirty, and it is family racing: bring the kids.
When and where
The season runs roughly October to April, and most meetings are Saturday evenings under lights. Find your nearest track and its dates on the tracks page or the calendar.
What it costs
Admission is set by each club and changes for championship nights, so we do not print a figure here. It has been wrong before. Every track page links straight to the club, which is the only source that is ever current.
What to bring
- • Ear protection — It is loud, and much louder than children expect.
- • Warm clothes — Evenings get cold at an open clay track, even in summer.
- • Rain gear — Most tracks are uncovered.
- • Cash — Some tracks are still cash only at the gate.
Where to sit
For the contact classes, Superstocks and Stockcars, sit near the fence on a corner. That is where the hits happen. For the open-wheel speed classes, Sprintcars and Midgets, the main straight gives you the best view of the racing and the finishes.
Not sure which is which? The racing classes page has a labelled diagram of all thirteen.
Know before you drive out there
Pick your track and we will email you the moment a meeting is called off, moved, or new dates go up.
You are on the list.
Starting young
New Zealand speedway has a real youth pathway, and children can start racing well before they can drive on the road. Ages below are the usual range; the exact rules sit with Speedway NZ and your club.
Quarter Midgets
From about 8 · Non-contact, open wheel
Purpose-built small open-wheel cars. Racecraft, car control and oval racing in a controlled environment.
Youth Ministocks
Roughly 12 to 16 · Limited contact
Small, affordable sedan-style cars. The most popular youth class in the country, and the usual way in.
TQ Midgets
Roughly 12 to 16 · Non-contact, open wheel
A step up in speed for anyone who took to the open-wheel side rather than the sedans.
Youth Saloons
Under 16 · Limited contact
Near-standard production cars with safety modifications. Teaches setup and mechanical work as much as driving.
Starting as an adult
Never raced? These are the usual ways in. Costs are rough and second-hand: a car someone is selling at the end of a season is a different price to a built one, so treat these as orders of magnitude rather than quotes.
Demo Derby
A few hundred dollars up
The cheapest way to find out whether you like it. Buy an old car, strip it to the rules, have a go. Full contact, last one running wins.
Adult Ministocks
Low thousands
Small, affordable, limited contact. A social class that does not need a big budget, and most tracks run it every race night.
Production Saloons
Low to mid thousands
A near-standard road car with safety modifications. Limited contact, close racing, and a strong national championship scene.
Streetstocks
Mid thousands up
Full-contact sedan racing with a purpose-built cage. Harder-hitting and more serious than Demo Derby.
Getting licensed
You need a Speedway NZ licence to race at any sanctioned meeting. These are the types and what each one covers.
- Youth
- The youth classes: Quarter Midgets, Youth Ministocks, Youth Saloons.
- Derby
- Demolition derby events only.
- Regional
- Your home track and nearby tracks.
- National
- Any track in New Zealand, and entry to national championships.
- International
- New Zealand and overseas.
- One day
- A single meeting, for trying it once without committing to a season.
What they cost
Speedway NZ sets the fees and changes them between seasons, so the only honest answer is theirs. We used to print a table here and could not verify a single figure in it.
Current licence fees at Speedway NZ →The three steps
- 1 Join a local club affiliated to Speedway NZ. Every one of them is on the tracks page with contact details.
- 2 Apply for the licence at speedway.co.nz.
- 3 Complete the medical declaration and pay the fee.
Ring the club before you buy anything. Every one of them would rather talk a newcomer through it than watch someone spend money on the wrong car.
Something wrong on this page?
If you know this sport better than we do, tell us. No account, no email needed.
Thank you, genuinely.
A person reads every one of these. If you are right the page gets fixed and the change goes in our public corrections log, so anyone can see what was wrong and what we did about it.